Vote Leave Under Investigation For Breaking Electoral Law During EU Referendum

Vote Leave Under Investigation For Breaking Electoral Law During EU Referendum

Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign in the EU referendum, is being investigated for potentially breaking strict electoral law.

Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign in the EU referendum, is being investigated for potentially breaking strict electoral law.

The Boris Johnson-fronted organisation is under investigation by the election watchdog over payments of more than £600,000 it made to a fashion student just days before the historic vote.

Darren Grimes was given £625,000 by the group in the days leading up to the June 23 vote, with a further £50,000 being handed over by a Leave backing donor.

Donations to the anti-EU Veterans for Britain group are also being looked into.

If it is confirmed that Vote Leave breached the £7million spending limit imposed by the Electoral Commission in the run up to the vote, the police could bring charges against those running the organisation.

Bob Posner, the Electoral Commission’s Director of Political Finance and Regulation and Legal Counsel, said: “There is significant public interest in being satisfied that the facts are known about Vote Leave’s spending on the campaign, particularly as it was a lead campaigner with a greater spending limit than any other campaigners on the ‘leave’ side.

“Legitimate questions over the funding provided to campaigners risks causing harm to voters’ confidence in the referendum and it is therefore right that we investigate.”

A spokesperson for the Commission confirmed Vote Leave could be hit with a £20,000 fine and the case could be referred to the police if the law has been broken.

Earlier this year the Commission looked into claims the group had breached the spending limit, but decided no action should be taken.

But more information has now come to light which has given the watchdog “reasonable grounds to suspect an offence may have been committed”.

Want to know what’s really going on with Brexit? Sign up for HuffPost UK’s Brexit Briefing - sent straight to your inbox every Thursday.

Grimes, who now works for the anti-EU website Brexit Central, ran a young-people focused campaign called BeLeave, listed as an “Outreach Group” on Vote Leave’s website.

Under electoral law, the money paid to Grimes by Vote Leave would count towards the official limit if there was coordination of activities.

Speaking earlier this year, Grimes said the money was spent on a Canadian political consultancy firm called AggregateIQ.

He told BuzzFeed: “AggregateIQ helped us reach as many people as possible.